


Baffled, In Love and Hate

by Skull_Bearer



Series: Spaceborn [1]
Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Absolutely no non-con, Alpha Carlton Drake, Alpha Riot, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Anal Sex, Canonical Character Death, Eddie and Venom look after each other, M/M, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Omega Eddie Brock, Omega/Omega sex, Oral Sex, Outer Space, Symbiote Sex, because alphas suck, post credits scene, we consensually fuck like men, who cares they suck anyway
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-19
Updated: 2018-11-19
Packaged: 2019-08-25 21:43:16
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 10,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16668847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skull_Bearer/pseuds/Skull_Bearer
Summary: Eddie and Venom are trapped on the rocket with Riot and Drake, about to go into Heat. Drake and Riot think they know how this is going to go.They are wrong.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> The title is from Lord of the Flies by William Golding, which was the spiritual inspiration for this. 
> 
> Thank you to sadieb798 for the awesome beta!

The world fragments around Eddie. He can hear Venom screaming, Riot’s triumphant roar, Drake shouting something half drowned in the tangle of symbiotes. Eddie reaches out, blindly in the knots of liquid flesh hanging suspended and senseless. He can feel Riot’s teeth sinking into Venom and cries out, lunges blindly until his hands _catch_ on the slippery, twisting flesh. Venom clings to him desperately, pain blooming bright and deafening between them and Eddie _pulls_ and there’s a world-shaking _tearing_ and- and-

And Eddie is on the white plastic of the floor, Venom desperate and coiling around him, trying to sink beneath his skin. Drake is reeling, Riot flickering around him, trying to resolve himself after their escape.

The world is still shaking. Eddie tries to stand up, and his arms don’t seem to answer. There’s a huge, crushing pressure on his chest, the weight of an elephant pushing him down until he’s gasping for air. Drake is down, hanging on to the controls-

The controls.

They’re in the rocket.

Venom and Eddie roar, panic pouring through them and in a heartbeat they are one again, hurling themselves forwards. Drake grabs hold of the controls, Riot flowing back around him. But he’s trying to steer. Eddie and Venom have no such distractions.

Drake screams as their claws sink into the brushed steel of the control and tears away the panels. Riot moves first, lashing out and knocking them away. _“Down_ ” He roars.

Eddie feels Venom tremble, half cowed, but still mad enough to keep going. Eddie shoves them forward and catches Drake on the shoulder, clawing him to the bone and spilling red blood over the exposed electronics. “Stop!” Drake howls.

Riot bites into Venom’s body, drags him half off Eddie. Eddie chokes at the sudden stench of heat and plastic, then that’s overwhelmed as Drake’s hand snaps around his jaw and wrenches his head up, Eddie recoils under the sudden burst of _rage_ and _Alpha_. “Submit!”

He wants to curl up on the ground and whimper, offer his throat for forgiveness. Eddie bares his teeth, “Good try,” he snarls and sinks his hand up to the elbow into the inner workings of the rocket, “Better than the interview.” He grabs something, and _pulls_. “Didn’t work then either.”

The machinery spits sparks and burns. Riot recoils and Eddie leaps back, pulling Venom free and hugging him to his chest. Riot coils around Drake in a panic as smoke fills the cabin, fire starting to spread.

 _Eddie-_ He can feel Venom’s fear of the fire, the hungry flames growing in the oxygen rich atmosphere. Outside, the stars are clear and cold, Earth stretching blue beneath them. Eddie spots a door and runs for it. Drake doesn’t notice, trying to push Riot back enough to grab the fire extinguisher. There’s the searing smell of carbon dioxide, the spitting hiss as the fire goes out.

“Get back here!” Riot sees them and jumps at them; Drake is pulled off his feet, the extinguisher flying out of his hands. He yells, the fire rears up again. Riot’s snarling face is inches from theirs, but Venom roars back and sinks his teeth into Riot’s face. Eddie finds the door release and throws themselves backwards as Riot recoils, pulls away as Drake fights his way back to the fire, trying to beat it out with his hands.

Riot screams in pain, the smell of burning flesh makes Eddie’s stomach turn, but he forces them to keep moving, slamming the door shut between them.

For a moment, there’s stunning silence. Inside, they can hear the muffled shouting, can see Drake struggling with the fire, Riot snatching up the extinguisher and finally putting out the blaze. They turn, and Venom slams a tendril on the emergency airlock, bolts slamming to, the hiss as their corridor pressurized. Riot sneers at them, claws flashing and sinking into the metal-

And alarms start to blare. “ _Pressurization failing. Decompression in 10 seconds-“_

“Stop!” Drake roars at Riot, straining back to what is left of the panel, stretching Riot in long strands as he struggles with the door. “For fuck’s sake-“

_Nine, eight-_

The alarms cut out. Riot leers at them through the porthole, and Venom slinks back under Eddie’s skin, huddling away from that hungry glare. Eddie meets those blind eyes, dull and milky compared to Venom’s iridescent gaze. “Fuck you.” He snarls.

“No, fuck you!” Drake lurches over, and it’s Eddie’s turn to recoil. The door means he’s spared the scent-signals, but Drake’s roar is pure Alpha. “Do you know what you’ve done?!”

“Yeah,” Venom swims over his skin like a shark, Eddie strokes him, risks a grin. “Good luck trying to get to your symbiotes now.”

“We’ll die up here, you pathetic little _bitch_!” Drake screams. “We’ll never get back! We’ll die up here, and the world will burn without us to save it-“

“To _eat_ it, you mean.” Eddie backs away. “Ask your little parasite what he was planning to do when he got back to Earth!“

“ _Open the_ _fucking door, Omega!”_ Drake’s fist slams on the door, and the alarm goes again. “ _Fuck!”_ He rushes back to switch off the alarm before they’re vented into the vacuum.

“Calm down, fool.” Riot snarls, “They cannot stay there forever, they will starve-“

“They locked themselves in the fucking _farm_.” Drake shuts off the alarm, glaring balefully at Eddie.

Eddie glances behind him and- huh. So they have. There’s another sealing door, and beyond the room’s full of plants, softly lit by sunlight lamps. Eddie recognizes potatoes and carrots. There’s also a whole artificial warren of rabbits, hopping, nibbling at the lab grown grass and- well, making more rabbits.

There's a slow, awful silence outside, and Eddie watches Riot’s ugly eyes widen, the curdled skin of his face twist as he realizes there is no live food on this side of the door. Drake pales as those liquid eyes turn on him, the only edible thing before him. “Okay, Brock.” The rage and command is out of his voice, it wavers a little. “Give us the rabbits, or we cut off life support and take them anyway.”

“Dead rabbits.” Eddie crosses his arms. “They die, you die. I know symbiotes, they don’t like dead meat.”

“Goddamit Brock!” Drake leans in, trying to bear him down, but Eddie just steps back, as he had the first time, in the interview. Drake’s so fucking predictable, if he doesn’t get his way, it’s back to _big Alpha beg me to fuck you_. Eddie sneers. He’s not Bonded, but he doesn’t need that to stare down Drake.

With his last weapon gone, Drake looks between Riot and Eddie, then presses his face close against the porthole. “You might have the food, but we have the medication. How long are you going to last without Heat dampeners Brock? You’ll be _begging_ to open that door.”

Eddie grits his teeth, feeling sick. Venom is still and stoic under his hand, but Eddie can feel him, shivering and just as ill as Eddie is feeling. Riot bares his teeth at them, and the feeling grows worse. “Fuck you.” Is all Eddie can say.

“Breeders.” Riot sneers.

Eddie ignores them, steps back through the second door, and seals and locks it behind them.

The room smells sweet and good. It smells of damp earth and growing life, of cut grass and rabbits. Eddie draws in a breath, and lets out the last of the Alpha stink from his lungs. God, that feels better. He leans back against the door, and slides down until they’re down on the floor.

For a long moment, they say nothing. A few rabbits hop up to the glass and look at them curious, then lollop away. Venom slips out of Eddie’s body and curls around him, huge arms pulling him close until Eddie’s head is resting against his, until all he can smell is the sweet, warm scent of Venom, somewhere between engine oil and latex.

“Don’t let me open that door.” Eddie says finally. Hopefully Venom will have more luck with that than last time.

Venom pauses for a moment, then those huge, clawed hands go back to kneading his back. “No.” He agrees. “We will not. Riot will feed on Drake, then when he is dead, he will starve. We have food here, we are safe.”

“How long’s it gonna take?” Eddie sits back, looks up at that sleek, black-bullet head. “How long have we got to hang on for?”

Venom cocks his head, looks back at the door. “He ate today,” he says finally. “We felt it when he took us. If he is careful, and takes his time, it could take- weeks, a month maybe.”

“Fuck.” Eddie rubs his face. He tries to imagine it. His Heat’s in a week, maybe less. No suppressants. No toys, no partners, no relief. A month. No one’s ever lasted that long, usually dehydration ends it first-

“We will not let you die.” Venom snarls, alarmed.

“Yeah, thanks.” Eddie leans against Venom. If not death, then madness; assuming he could even get out of Heat, after so long stuck in a cycle. Fuck, Drake was right to be cocky, he’s the only thing standing between Eddie and madness and death.

“We cannot open the door.” Venom slipped down under his hands, Eddie stroked him, hugged him in his arms.

“I know.” He can feel his mind scrambling to find another solution, something other than dying, or kneeling at Drake’s feet, begging to be fucked. Then Riot would be free to do- whatever he wanted to the pair of them.

“No, shh.” Venom nuzzled him, teeth pressing against his cheek. “We will not allow this to happen.” He tries to sound firm, authoritative, but he’s scared too. Eddie looks around at the warm, sunny room, the happy rabbits. The steel walls which now feel so thin: the only thing between them and the emptiness of space, or Riot’s teeth and endless hunger.

Eddie closes his eyes. His muscles are sore and aching from the very, very long day, his clothes are soaked through with sweat and he’s starting to shiver. “We can help.” Venom murmurs, and melts over him, wrapping close.

Eddie sighs in relief as Venom slides over his feet. He’d lost his shoes at some point in the fight, and his toes are freezing. Venom is deliciously warm. “You okay?” He strokes Venom.

“Yes,” Venom whispers against him. “Tired, Eddie.”

“Yeah.” Eddie closes his eyes, wonders how the hell he’s going to sleep with Riot and Drake only two doors away, with his body clock ticking down.

 _Shh_ , he rumbled in his head. “Sleep. We’ll keep you safe. Trust us.”

He does. He just doesn’t think there’s much Venom can do. He’s good at eating people and climbing buildings, and Eddie is sad he probably won’t even get to ride a bike with Venom again, but there isn’t anything he can do about the oncoming Heat.

 _We can try_. Venom says firmly, and Eddie tries to believe him.

 

* * *

  

Eddie opens his eyes to the stench of Alpha. He growls and covers his nose. “Good morning Eddie.” Drake’s voice crackles through the speakers. “Like what we’ve done with the place?”

“Fuck you.” Eddie sighs. He’s starting to feel like a broken record.

“Have fun!” No one stuck with a hungry symbiote should sound that cheerful. Eddie grits his teeth and gets up. Venom stirs around him, then shrinks back inside his body. _What is that?!_

“I guess Drake wanked into a vent and had fun sending it to us.” Despite the smell, his stomach growls.

“Not just him.” Venom slicks out of his shoulder, his teeth bared. “Riot too. We can _smell_ him.”

“Parasites can wank?” He tries to joke. Venom gives him a flat, unimpressed look. “Sorry.”

“This isn’t funny.” He twitches, and Eddie feels something- dark, and ugly- pushing up inside him, and Venom shoving it back down hard. “Hungry.”

“Yeah,” Eddie looked around. There’s lots of food, but no way of cooking it. Presumably Drake’s got that too.

“We can eat.” Venom looks into the rabbit tank. The rabbits look back, clearly unsure what this new creature is. They’re about to learn.

“Good for you.” Eddie leans on the edge of tank.

“We can eat for both of us. We’ll take in nutrition, and feed it to you.”

“Oh, okay.” He watches as Venom dips his head in and snaps up a rabbit almost daintily. The little head crushes under his teeth, and the body goes limp. Below, the rabbits rush around in a panic, trying to hide and not knowing where to go.

Venom eats the whole thing carefully, and Eddie feels warmth bloom in his stomach, the food funneling through both of them. He closes his eyes. Okay, that feels better. He finds a small plantation of carrots and pulls one up, cutting off two roots and reburying the rest. He washes them under the tap, and crunches down.

Okay, they’re fed. It makes it a bit easier to ignore the smell of the room, the faint pressure in the back of his mind where it reacts to the incoming Heat. Eddie glances at the door, through the corridor and out to the cockpit. Heh. _Cock_.

“Two cocks pit.” Venom agrees, so apparently he isn’t the only one who enjoys high school humor.

From what he can see through the porthole, Drake’s snatching bites of dried food in between trying to repair the controls. Good luck with that. Eddie sees the handful of- whatever it was he pulled from the computer lying in a bundle of wires and incomprehensible transistors on their side of the door. Eddie pauses, puts his finger to his lips and ducks down. “Eddie!” Venom hisses as he opens the door.

“Shh.” Eddie stays low, crawling over to the machinery and picking it up. Through the door, he can hear Drake swearing.

Riot sees them first, his long head swinging towards them, eternal grin slitting wider. “You couldn’t stay away.” He growls.

Drake looks up, there’s a flash of relief, then it’s smoothed back under a look of smug satisfaction. “Couldn’t wait, could you Brock?” He swaggers over, “I know I’m good, but that good? I could smell it on you the first time we met. I could have fucked you right there, in front of the cameras-“

“Nah. Just wanted to make sure you know you’re wasting your time.” Eddie holds up the wires and tubes. “Have fun!”

Drake’s smug face shatters into rage. He’s about to bang on the door, but thinks better of it. “Maybe I won’t fuck you.” He snarls. “Maybe I’ll fuck your mouth, get Riot to cut me a few new holes to have fun with, anything but where you want me you little breeding _bitch_ -”

Eddie closes the door, and any more is lost. He puts down the wires. Venom looks at him a moment, then takes them and bites down, crunching them into meaningless fragments of metal and insulation and glass. Eddie nods, but something _hurts_ inside, all the same. This is it. They will never make it home. He will never see Annie again. Never eat a steak dinner, drink a beer. Never ride his bike over the Golden Gate bridge and enjoy the wind in his face. They will die out here, in a tin can in space. Alone.

“Not alone.” Venom sighs, but Eddie can feel the sadness in him too. He’d loved Eddie’s world, the little time he’d spent in it, loved it enough to turn against Riot, and fight for it. “We still won.”

“Yeah.” It does mean something; that all that life will carry on, even without them. Annie’ll be sad, but she’s got Dan, and it’s not as though Eddie’s got many more people who’ll miss him.

“We’ll miss you.” Venom murmurs, so low Eddie feels the words in his bones.

“Yeah.” Eddie presses his cheek against Venom’s head. “Thanks.” He means it. If there’s one person in this world or off it even more alone than he is, it’s Venom. “I’m glad you’re here.”

Venom snorted. “Not glad to be here.” Then he huffed. “But I’m glad to be with you.”

A warmth that has nothing to do with the slow waxing of Heat washes through him. “Hey,” he nudges the head up. “I’m not sorry I met you. I’m not sorry we’re here.” There was nothing in his life before, no one. Now there is, and even if they’re going to die- at least it’s for something, rather than jumping into the bay because his life has been nothing but failure.

And Venom- is warm. Is here. Strangely gentle, for all his savagery, able to look through the mess of humanity- of Eddie- and see something worth loving within them. He leans in, and touches his mouth to Venom’s. He feels teeth for a moment, then Venom’s mouth closes over them, and they’re kissing, sweet and warm and blotting out the wretched world for a little while. Venom’s eyes are closed when he pulls away, a thin white line rimming each side of his head. “Thank you,” he murmurs, and leans back in for more.

 

* * *

  

The only relief is that there’s always something to do in their room. It’s been decades since Eddie left the farm where he grew up, but the memories come back as he works. There’s a good stock of fertilizer, so at least Eddie won’t be reduced to using his own waste any time soon. There are rabbits to feed and cull because- wow, they do breed fast. Venom munches on a half dozen baby rabbits every morning, just to keep the population manageable. Eddie cleans, and checks the plants, and occasionally picks out a few leaves of lettuce or a raw potato to keep off scurvy.

“It’s where tater tots come from.” Eddie explains to a thunderously unimpressed Venom. “We could- ow!” He jerks his singed fingers away, sucks them.

He’s trying to hook up some wires to a makeshift hot-plate. If he can get it working, they can make chips. The Heat is closer now, a slowly crawling presence in his stomach, itchy and aggravated by the constant stench of Alpha. Drake hasn’t tried to contact them since, but every so often, Eddie can hear a distant crash and muffled scream from the cockpit, sometimes even a roar from Riot.

“What is this?” Venom prods the Heat-place in Eddie’s head, very gently.

Eddie pauses, twisting the wires between his fingers. “You don’t know?”

“It’s Heat. We can see that from your mind. What is Heat? You seem to think it’s self-explanatory.”

Eddie smiles, “Yeah, I guess I don’t think about it much. Do you have gender anyway? Normal gender?”

“What do you call normal? How many genders do you have? It’s confused in your head.”

“Yeah, it’s confusing, and stupid.” Eddie agrees. “There’s three. Alpha, Beta, Omega.”

“Warrior, Worker, Breeder.” Venom says unexpectedly, Eddie blinks. “Then- we are the same. Three genders. The Warriors fight and fuck, the Workers labour and heal; the Breeders spawn and protect.”

“Yeah.” It’s not what Eddie expected, but it’s reassuring all the same. A way they’re not so different. “Pretty much the same here, Riot’s a Warrior, right?”

“And Drake is Alpha.” Venom agrees dryly, then. “And we are Omega. Breeder.”

“Yeah, pretty much. Not that I’ve done much breeding.”

Venom gives him a puzzled look so- huh, maybe a bit different after all. “You have never been bred?”

Eddie winces. “Not the best way to talk about it, buddy. But- no. I thought Annie and I- but I fucked it up, so that never happened.”

“You do not want spawn?”

Eddie hesitates; he tries to think of the best way to explain it to Venom that yeah, having kids _would be_ nice, but it was everything else that wouldn’t be worth it. Being left at home to nurse while Annie worked, being dropped from the network once he’d Bonded, the hormonal drive that kicked in after each child, pushing him to have another. He had no idea how to put it so Venom could understand, but thankfully he didn’t have to, Venom was listening closely, curiously, to his thoughts. _Different._ He says finally. _Not like us_.

And for a moment, the world blots out and he’s lying under the stars, lost and writhing under a mass of his kind. Workers tending him, Warriors breeding him, children of all three genders pushing and nosing around him.  It’s blind and senseless, almost nothing but sensation. Almost nothing, but Eddie could pick out the hollow of loss inside Venom, the need for something- more. A better connection than the mindless service to the Hive, the hateful slavery of hosts. More than just a Breeder or a parasite. He felt himself mocked for his desires, children turning away from him, Warriors mocking him, Workers leaving him to spawn by himself, irritated by his alien wants.

 _Loser._ Eddie murmurs between them.

 _Yes._ Venom said sadly. _I went to Earth because a Breeder is always sent, to help build the army. But-_

 _They wanted to get rid of you_. And fuck, _fuck_ Eddie knows that, doesn’t he? If it hadn’t been Carlton Drake, they’d have found another excuse to fire him, as they had at the Bugle. The discomfort of seeing an Unbonded Omega of his age, being unable to say anything because he was just too _good_ at his job, this job he should be standing aside to offer to less-qualified Alphas, and fade away into the shadows, the pregnancy bed and the birthing room.

 _Yes_. And there’s relief there too. That someone finally understood; who knew what it was like to want so much more. _Like that, alone_.

“Oh, come here.” Eddie opens his eyes, and pulls Venom into his arms. He wells up from his body, winds around Eddie’s arms, head under Eddie’s head. “You’re not alone, babe. I’m right here. And I’m sure as fuck ain’t going anywhere.”

“You believe you will die.” Venom says finally, trying to nuzzle closer. “This Heat will kill you. If it does not, I will need to spawn and without genetic material-“

He can’t quite finish, he doesn’t need to. Eddie can see it. Venom knows what’s happened to others. Those left isolated, alone too long. They spawned, again and again, unstoppably until they simply fell apart, bodies melting into mindless fragments of themselves.

Eddie feels sick. God, he wants to find a way out that doesn’t end with both of them dying, but right now that seems the best fucking option. Just end it quickly, before they’re destroyed and tortured to nothing by their own biology. Outside, there’s a scream, something smashing. Riot snarls so loud they both jump, and the rabbits scamper for cover. When Eddie gets up and looks through the portholes, he can see Drake screaming at Riot, red-faced behind a haze of smoke. Yeah, still the best option.

“What do you need?” Venom says finally. “I can hold it off, a little longer. Yours is coming very soon.”

“Sex.” Eddie sighs. “At least. It doesn’t have to be from an Alpha, I was fine with Omega communes after Annie-“ he breaks off, looking at Venom. Omegas. And Venom is one.

“Eddie?” Venom doesn’t quite get it which- is fair enough. Symbiote sex... isn’t. A Breeder and Warrior symbiote coil together, exchange genetic material and the Breeder spawns. The end. It isn’t even particularly fun, more just lie back and think of- wherever they came from-

 _Klyntar_ , Venom prompts.

Lie back and think of Klyntar. Eddie grimaces, and sends Venom a rush of images of what sex was like for him. Slick and wet and sweaty, cocks and clits pushing into his body, mouths open and sucking against his cock, his throat, his slick ass. The rushing tides of Heat breaking over him, wild desire to be filled and completed, fucked and bred until mind and body where both slack and senseless.

Venom studies the images carefully, and understands. “I can do that.” He’s suddenly right in front of Eddie, huge and hulking and almost ridiculously _massive_ for an Omega. His clawed hands run carefully over Eddie’s chest. Eddie sends a picture of Venom, fully manifested over him, fucking him hot and hard with a massive cock, knot swelling and filling him, locking them together and finally, finally scratching that desperate _want_ inside him.

He gets back one of himself, writhing on the ground as he had in his memories with Annie, wrapped up tight as a present in Venom’s tendrils, tentacles coiled around his cock, pumping in and out of his mouth, his ass, Venom’s skin slick with his sweat and saliva and seed and slick.

Eddie licks his lips, shivers, “Yeah, that’s good too.” He’s painfully hard, and so close to his Heat, he’s starting to slick the ground. “What about you?” He strokes Venom’s face, pictures himself mounting Venom, looking ridiculous on the symbiote’s massive body, his cock slipping into that great mass. He can’t knot, and he’s barely fertile like this, but-

 _No,_ Venom considers thoughtfully. _We cannot draw on your genes, but-_

“But?” Eddie sits up, gently scratching Venom’s sides. Venom feels guilty even considering this; it feels a bit like when Eddie realized the symbiote was eating his organs. “You don’t need to eat any of my bits?” Okay, maybe he can spare a few- an appendix, even a kidney, but-

“No.” Venom murmurs, and he claws up lightly over Eddie’s belly, making him squirm and sigh happily. “Not eat. But change. We can alter our genes a little, and yours too. Make us close enough to breed, if you want.”

Eddie lets his breath out, the relief eclipsing even his arousal. Fuck, they’re going to _live_. Riot and Drake can eat each other in a few weeks, and they’ll be there to see it. There was a third way, and they found it. “Love you.” He kisses Venom tightly.

Venom doesn’t react at once, those great eyes blink. “You mean that?”

Eddie pauses, replays his last few words. Oh.

He hadn’t said those words to anyone for months. And before that, only Annie. But looking at Venom, alone and savage and hurting and yet so gentle, so like him, Eddie smiles. “Yeah, I love you, Venom.”

Venom’s tongue flicks out over his teeth, then leans in, first for a kiss, then to lean in, forehead against forehead. Eddie hugs him, pulls them both close. God, that feels good.

“Yes.” He can feel the words reverberate between them. “So good. I never imagined it would be so good.”

His hands brace down on either side of Eddie’s shoulders, his body pulling out in long tentacles, writhing over Eddie’s body, slipping down under his clothes. Eddie shivers and leans into the caress. Each tentacle is covered in little sucking mouths, nibbling and licking and lapping at his skin.

Eddie reaches up and runs his hands over each side of Venom’s neck. He wants to return the favour, to find the sweet and tender places on Venom’s body, and touch them, lick them, stroke and tickle and bite until Venom was groaning like he is, feels as warm and safe and loved as he does.

“Love you.” Venom purrs, long tongue unfurling and coiling over his neck, the side of his head. His breath is hot; smells sweet and salty, like blood or fresh sweat. “Here, Eddie.”

And Eddie’s hands are slipping through Venom’s skin, as though made of heavy oil, liquid silk. Eddie cards his fingers through him, combing over and over until Venom is shivering. Here and there, he feels something more solid in the morass, like tiny beads. Eddie catches one, pinches gently and feels Venom groan in pleasure, the sound so deep he feels it rather than hearing.

“Good,” Venom licks his cheek again, tongue snaking over his jaw. Eddie opens his mouth and lets it in, heavy and slick and boiling hot. Venom’s tentacles wind around his waist, shift him up and pulls at his pants until his aching cock stings in the cold air, his bare ass so wet he shivers.

“You smell so good, Eddie.” Venom bites his ear; just the edge of his long teeth and Eddie is shivering. “You’re beautiful.”

Eddie can’t say anything in return, just opens his mouth until his jaw aches, taking in more and more and _more_ of that long tongue, wet with saliva, almost drowning him. It twitches, rasping inside his throat, pushing and testing how much he can take.

“You like this Eddie?” And Eddie gives a choking howl as something thick and wet and _huge_ pushes inside him. He’s so close to Heat there’s barely any resistance, it slips right in and _God_ ; that nearly pushes him over the edge and right into full-blown Heat, right there. Venom ruts into him, tongue dragging down his throat, massive cock filling him up. Eddie can feel him rifling through his memories, picking out what he wants- then the cock reforms inside him, a thick knot plugging him up. Eddie shudders and goes limp, thousands of years of evolution informing him that this is the point he lies back and enjoys it. Let himself get fucked and bred and remade and just _take and take and take_.

And a part of Eddie rebels against that. He’s never been one to lie down for biology and he’s not going to start now. He pulls his hands free, and wraps them around Venom’s waist, pulling him in against his cock. Venom growls and the feeling of it runs down his tongue and down Eddie’s throat, and he opens himself up to Eddie’s cock, swallowing him down. It’s like fucking silk, water, the tiny rolling beads inside coiling around his cock. Eddie arches his back and closes his eyes, cock pumping in his ass, his hips bucking inside Venom, sucking down on his tongue.

Eddie can’t hold on any longer. It feels _so good_ and he doesn’t even know how he orgasms, cock or ass or both. It comes in a long, drawn out shudder, sweet and liquid and endless. He clenches down on Venom’s cock, smashing hard and thrusting blindly into Venom’s body, coming and coming and coming in long spurts into that sleek black body.

He falls back, limp and almost blinded by release. Venom sighs, that long tongue slowing ebbing back out of his throat, his body slipping away into long tangles of self, seeping back under Eddie’s skin. “Eddie.” His head rests on Eddie’s shoulder.

“Vee.” Eddie turns his head and kisses him. The tentacles burrow and lift from him, over and over until he’s knotted up in Venom, like an endless hug.

“Do you still want to open that door?” Venom’s teeth glimmer in a grin.

Somewhere distant and far away, he can hear another fight breaking out in the cockpit. “They can keep the two cocks pit.” Eddie grins back, and closes his eyes, soaking in the warm of their shared bodies.

 _Sleep_. He’s not sure who thought it, and doesn’t care. The world sliding away into quiet, blissful _togetherness_ and rest.

 

* * *

 

 

The room still reeks of Alpha, but it’s no longer so irritating with Venom’s scent on his skin. Eddie is starting to pick out what is Drake, pungent and sharp, and Riot, raw and piercing as petrol. Eddie tries to ignore it, checks on the rabbits and starts setting up for their Heat. There are a few blankets in a cupboard, and Venom is bundling them up to make a nest, close enough to the rabbit tank for them to feed during breaks.

There’s a rattling bang on the distant door, and Eddie jumps. “Brock!” Drake’s voice is harsh and savage through the intercom. “Are you coming out or not?”

“Fuck you.” Eddie lies down in the nest, gives the ceiling the finger.

“You’ll go mad in there! I’ll watch you rut and scream and when you finally open the door I won’t even fuck you! Riot’ll eat you and you’ll die screaming you disgusting -"

Venom finds the speaker and tears out the insides, the din cuts out at once.

“Thanks, babe,” Eddie closes his eyes. It’s- peaceful in here.

The rabbits grind their teeth in soft little purrings, chew on grass and thump dully around their tank. The automatic sprinklers turn on and gently mist the plants. Venom slicks out of his body, strokes his claws over Eddie’s chest. If he listens hard enough, he can hear the distant hum of the engines, a distant crackle that Eddie doesn’t know - and that Venom recognizes as ice forming and crumbling against the hull of the rocket.

There’s another bang and distant roar from the cockpit and Eddie tenses, Venom coiling around him, baring his teeth - but all that happens is the distant blare of an alarm, and it dies down. Eddie closes his eyes, tries to slow his breathing away from the sudden burst of panic. Okay, okay. Safe. Safe. He’s spent Heats in worst places. Fuck, his last Heat was constantly interrupted by a pair of raccoons fucking in a dustbin outside his window.

“We’ll keep you safe,” Venom purrs. “We’re here, Eddie.”

“Come here,” Eddie opens his arms and groans in relief as Venom wraps himself around him.

He’s not Alpha, doesn’t quite scratch the itch deep inside his brain. But his scent is all over Eddie’s skin, soaked through him down to his bones and the sheer familiarity relaxes the knot of tension in his stomach. He’s in a nest that smells of them, nuzzled in with a lover he knows and trusts and- loves. Yes.

He relaxes into the blankets and closes his eyes, turns his awareness inward. Venom moves through him almost shyly, cautious as his hormones peak and the first shiver of sweat breaks over his skin.

“It’s okay,” Eddie murmurs, drawing in a shuddering breath as his arousal slowly uncurls from the pit of his stomach, his cock stiffening, his ass growing slick. “You won’t break me.”

Venom relaxes a little, coursing through his veins and nerves, a sweet twin to the growing _want_ spreading through him. “Yeah.” Eddie breathes, caught in that strange moment of _suspension_ , just before the first wave crested and he was pulled into the breakers. “That’s good.”

“Beautiful.” Venom murmurs against his throat, “Delicious, you taste so good -"

Then any more is lost, and the Heat cracks over him like a thunderstorm. Want and want and _want_ , dragging him down into an endless whirlpool. Somewhere outside, he was aware of his groans and gasps, his body rocking and bucking up, soaking the blankets under him with sweat and slick.

Then oh - _oh_ Venom is there, his teeth pressed against Eddie’s mouth and Eddie pants ravenously against him, opens his mouth to taste those teeth, that dripping saliva, that endless, coiling tongue. It slips into his mouth and Eddie sucks and sucks and drinks him down by the mouthful, _yes yes yes_.

“Yes.” Venom agrees. His body swarms over Eddie’s in a thousand hungry touches, mapping out his most sensitive parts. Brushing over his nipples, his stomach, the inside of his thighs. Pressing down in the hollow of his throat, the underside of each knee. Eddie whimpers against the rasp of Venom’s tongue, lifts his hips up; desperate for contact against his cock, his balls, his aching, spasming hole, desperate to be filled and completed, devoured and devouring. His whole body is a mouth, wider even than Venom's, panting and drooling and _so hungry_ -

 _Yesssss_. Venom whispers, and doesn’t make him suffer any longer. Tentacles wind around Eddie’s body and stroke him, caress and probe between his legs-

“Yea-" Eddie chokes on Venom’s tongue, and coughs when Venom pulls it out.

“You make beautiful sounds.” Venom’s slick body shivers and for a moment, Eddie can feel the Heat spreading through him too. It’s not lust, he doesn’t have the parts or the nervous system for arousal, but it’s _want_ all the same, desperate and almost panicked. "All of you is so beautiful."

Eddie’s hands find him, pull him in. His fingers card through the oiled silk of Venom’s flesh, finding those sweet places, the tiny solid pieces of him. Venom rumbles in pleasure, and the tentacle rubs over his seeping hole, licking around him. His cock is rock hard against his stomach, rubs slickly and maddeningly against Venom’s liquid flesh, ebbing and flowing over him but never quite _enough_.

“You ready?” Eddie closes his eyes, the world beyond them fading out, narrowing down to the needle point of _them_ , their bodies, the blinding suns of their twin desires. “Are we- can we-"

“Yes.” Venom’s breath is brief and hot, smells of Heat and kisses. “I complete you. You complete me.”

“Good." And Eddie throws his head back as the thick, slick tentacle pushes inside him, thick and heavy and _oh so good_ and his pleasure escapes him in a long, shuddering groan dragged out from deep inside him. He shifts his hips, and pulls Venom over his cock, thrusting and thrusting blindly until he feels those hardened little parts press up against his cock and Venom cannot speak any more and whines, high and wild.

The tentacle inside him thickens, bulges at the base into a knot that makes Eddie’s eyes roll back inside his head. He’s arching up blind, fucking Venom, driving back against his tentacle, over and over. His legs tangle into Venom’s liquid body, his hands are swallowed up to the elbow. Venom is melting over him, thick and rich as hot chocolate, running syrup-sweet down his throat, filling his nose and eyes and he can’t breathe and he doesn’t need to and the lines between the two of them are blurring, fading into a single creature of senseless _want_ and hunger, endlessly devouring each other in their ecstasy.

Eddie closes his useless eyes, gives a soundless cry that Venom swallows down and silences, and comes. He feels the long hot spurts from inside Venom’s body, his own seed swallowed down and sending Venom into deep, shuddering relief.

Venom reforms and pulls away from his face, Eddie coughs and draws in a wet, gasping breath. “Okay?”

“Yes.” Venom noses in Eddie’s brain, Eddie sighs, he can _feel_ Venom licking the inside of his skull, tasting the thick tide of Heat hormones flooding through him.

“Good.” It’s all he can manage before lowering his head and groaning with Eddie’s pleasure, thrusting harder inside him, stretching and spreading him. Eddie relaxes, floating for a moment between the waves of Heat, a moment to catch his breath before the next one hits.

Eddie’s vaguely aware of more noise outside, alarms, screaming, a crash of something breaking. He opens his mouth to say something -

Then the wave comes, and Eddie is clutching at Venom again, and Venom is rushing over him, fucking him and being fucked and soaking into him, and being drenched _by_ him and giving and eating and oh _oh so good_. Venom hisses into his mouth- or is Eddie in his mouth?- and comes, thick soaking bursts inside him that finally _finally_ scratches the desperate desire deep inside him. He shudders through another orgasm, Venom spasming around him.

They manage to pause long enough for a few mouthfuls of water. Venom snags a rabbit and feeds Eddie the heart and liver, tenderly as though he were an Alpha, and Eddie his Omega.

 _You are_. Venom’s too far gone to speak out loud. _And I’m yours. I love you_.

Eddie chews and swallows the bloody meat. It's disgusting, and sweeter than anything he’s ever known.

 

* * *

 

 

Their minds fade for a while, subsumed by the endless tides of Heat, drowned and swallowed down by each other. Time stops mattering, the world beyond their little cocoon of limbs and liquid flesh no longer exists. But slowly, slowly, the worst of it passes; the waves shorter and less intense, the breaks between longer and clearer.

Eddie’s eyes are closed, so wrapped up in Venom he isn’t sure where he ends and the symbiote begins. The last wave ebbs away; and no new one seems to be ready to appear. Hopefully, that will be the last one. He’s floating in sated pleasure, washed over by the ocean currents of the deep underwater, slowly drifting back up to the surface.

He opens his eyes slowly; the light is soft, blurs between his eyelashes. Venom’s head is resting on his chest, half melted into him. His tongue is sprawled over Eddie’s chest, a small pool of saliva dripping out over his ribcage. Their bodies are so entangled Eddie isn’t sure where his legs and right arm have gone, he lifts the only body part he knows is his, his left hand and gently strokes Venom between the eyes.

The fine white line of the shut lids flicker up to reveal Venom’s glimmering, mother-of-pearl eyes. His head pulls back together and he grins lazily at Eddie, so punch-drunk and silly Eddie can’t help but grin back. “Hey babe.”

“Good morning Eddie.” Venom slurs. “Is it over?”

“Yeah,” Eddie feels pretty sure about that. “You?”

“Gone.” He lifts his head up and arches his neck.

Eddie strokes him, finds his right arm and pulls him in for a kiss. Venom kisses back hungrily, and curls up beside him, the vagrant strands of his body condensing into a tangle of tentacles around Eddie, stroking and whispering against him. Eddie grins, too wiped out to do more than snuggle in. “We should have a cigarette.”

“We should have food.” Venom corrects. Eddie watches as he snaps up a rabbit and devours it in a few bites.

“So, you’re eating for two now?” Eddie strokes Venom as he settles back down, wrapping around Eddie like a hungry python. Venom glances at him, he doesn’t get it. “You’re - spawning, right? It worked? I knocked you up?”

Venom seemed to consider, probing inside himself, and his eyes flicker shut. “Yes. It did work. We are - we have a spawn. It will not be born for some time, but it is there.” There’s a world of relief in those words, a sort of weary satisfaction. “Thank you.”

“No problem.” Eddie kisses him again, settles down until they are pressed in cheek to cheek. “You’ve had kids before, right? You know how it goes?”

Venom doesn’t answer at first, but Eddie can feel the old misery grinding inside him, something wretched. “Babe?”

“Yes.” He says finally. “We know how it goes. We hope it will be different, this time.”

“Why?” Eddie wishes he could come closer, soak through Venom like he does into him and dig out whatever was causing him such pain. “Where are they?”

“They came with us on the comet.” Venom says finally, exhausted. “Drake took them. They died.”

Eddie goes cold all over because - God no. For a moment, all he can see is the dead symbiote he’d seen, barely two weeks and impossible eons ago. The twisted, cauterized body, blue-black against the lab floor, scorched and burned by oxygen. He tries to push it away, but not before Venom has seen it, he turns away.

“Yes.” It’s so simple, so heartbroken.

“Hey- hey- no.” Eddie pulls him in, hugs him. “It’s okay.” It’s definitely not. “No but- it’s going to be okay. We’ll have your baby here and -" he can’t finish it because- what? Born here with Riot and Drake outside, who kill it the moment they could come close enough? Trapped in a tin can in the middle of space, nothing but Eddie and Venom, no hosts but the rabbits?

Venom didn’t seem bothered. “It can’t be worse than before.” Flatly.

Okay, Eddie can agree with that. He closes his eyes- fuck, he’s tired- then opens them again. “Venom?”

“Yes?” Venom opens his eyes wearily, he desperately needs to sleep too.

“You said we’re- compatible now. You changed our genes so we can- breed together, right?”

“Of course.” Venom grumbles. “That’s the entire point.”

“So, "Eddie wriggles and - yep, his ass is absolutely soaked. “Did you knock me up too?”

“Probably.” Venom yawns. “There was a great deal of fluids exchanged. I cannot tell just yet, and we can always eat it if you don’t want it.”

Eddie hesitates. His knee-jerk reaction is to say _no_ , he doesn’t want it. He wasn’t ready for a kid, doesn't want to make the sacrifices -

What sacrifices? Eddie smiles ruefully. Who would push him out of his job now? Who’d demand he stay at home and be happy being bred? They are in a tin can in the middle of space, who cares?

“Riot.” Venom nuzzles him. “And Drake. There will be other Heats, and when they are gone, we would... it would be nice to see your child.”

“Oh babe.” Eddie lies back, runs one hand over Venom’s head, the other tentative along his stomach. He did want this, he admits to himself. He’d wanted it for a long time, but the world had been so stacked against him he hadn’t dared. Eddie'd been terrified of taking any steps closer to being what they all wanted - the quiet, biddable Omega.

“We’ll eat them.” Venom snarls, and Eddie smiles. “You are perfect, Eddie. Strong and brave and better than all of them. Better than Riot. Better than Drake.”

Speaking of. Eddie looks up at the door.

And the alarms go off. Eddie sits up, Venom slipping back under his skin. Getting to his feet is more - challenging than he’s used too. He’s not sore exactly, just - stretched, and his legs feel out of practice with the whole business of standing up.

They remember quickly enough when the door gives a hideous crunch. He’s up and at the porthole in moments, peering through.

“ _Pressurization failing. Decompression in 10 seconds -"_

Riot’s claws have punched straight through the door. They hook and tear, the metal peeling away like an opening tin.

_“Eight seconds.”_

Eddie can see Drake, ragged and furious. His eyes are blown scarlet from lack of sleep and - oh fuck, he’s in rut. That vent he and Riot opened to wank into. They must have gotten a full blast of Heat hormones right back.

“ _Five seconds._ ”

Eddie finds the emergency lock and slams it, but Riot and Drake don’t care. They’re ripping through the first door like it’s paper and if they get through this one-

“ _Three seconds.”_

Well, it’s not likely to matter, since the whole cabin is set to depressurize. Venom wraps around him, but even he can’t keep them alive in total vacuum. He might survive in hibernation, but Eddie-

_“Two seconds.”_

“Brock!” Drake screams, and Eddie’s legs buckle under him because it’s not longer _big Alpha beg me to fuck you,_ but _tear you in half if you don’t obey me_.  “Open the fucking door!”

_“One second.”_

The door rips free, and he and Riot are through to the corridor. They’re lurching towards them, teeth and claws and madness and even though it’s impossible Eddie can _smell them_ -

“ _Decompressing, three minutes.”_

They’re only a step away from the last door, and Drake stops, shuddering. His chest pumps uselessly, his mouth a wide red _O_ of desperation. Riot screams and throws himself at the door - but he’s already crusting over with ice. The porthole is blinded with condensation, which immediately starts forming into crystals, mapping over the reinforced quartz glass.

Venom pulls Eddie away from the door, lunging for the small vent in the ceiling he hadn’t noticed. Eddie chokes, the air suddenly feeling thin, being sucked out through the hole. Venom throws a tentacle into the hole and blocks, it, Eddie chokes, panting and held on his toes, half suspended from the ceiling.

There’s a thump against the door. Another. Eddie shudders, Venom tries to wrap around his mouth and nose, “Eddie -" he wails.

But the next thump is weaker, the faint scratch of claws. The fogged porthole is shadowed for a moment, something passing over it - then it slips away, and there’s nothing out there but ice.

_“Decompression two minutes.”_

Eddie shudders. Venom screams, and there’s the terrible _crack_ and he drops back down hard in Eddie, knocking them both flat. Venom is shuddering and groaning, and to Eddie’s horror he can see a chunk of Venom still stuck in the vent, blocking it off. “Oh, babe-“ He gropes for Venom and pulls him against his chest. “Oh shit, I’m sorry -"

“It’s okay.” Venom shudders. “We can grow it back. Hurts.”

_“Decompression one minute.”_

Eddie presses a kiss to the soft coils. “Kiss it better?”

Venom trembles in a weak laugh. “Here,” he holds up a tentacle, it’s got a chunk missing and hurts to look at. Eddie kisses it anyway. Venom shivers and presses closer.

_“Decompression over. Recompression initiated.”_

Eddie gets up and carries them both over to the door. The ice of the porthole is starting to melt as air is pumped back into the corridor and cockpit. Eddie rubs uselessly at the glass. Drake is a slowly clearing shadow through the glass, ice-crusted and dead. Riot is just in front of the door, lying in a frozen puddle on the ground.

Not dead, not yet. Just waiting for them to open the door. Eddie takes in a breath. “Mask?”

Venom knows. “Copy.” They hit the emergency door release.

The air is so thin Eddie’s gasping, so cold his skin stiffens before Venom washes over him, keeping him safe. Even here, the smell of Alpha is _everywhere_ , so thick and sick, he wants to vomit, to run, to kneel and spread his legs -

Venom lunges forwards and bites Drake in half. Eddie can hear the ice on his skin, his frozen blood, crumble and crack under his teeth. Eddie bends down and gathers the remains of Riot. It feels like picking up a slab of frozen porridge.

“Quickly.” Venom growls, but Eddie is already moving, back into the room and plugging in the hotplate. He hasn’t managed to get it working yet, but that doesn’t matter, he twists the wires together and touches them to the edge of a blanket. It spits, catches.

Venom pulls away, alarmed as the fire starts. Eddie throws Riot into the growing flames. There’s a crackle, the spit of snap-melting ice, a sick smell somewhere between engine oil and burning plastic.

And Riot _screams_.

It’s bordering so close to 4000 hertz that Venom dives back into Eddie and huddles somewhere under his liver, shivering. Eddie braces himself, Riot lunges at him blindly, the grey flesh is dropping off him like candlewax, those white eyes burst open and dripping. But those teeth are still there, sharp and hungry for his throat. Eddie grits his teeth and grabs Riot around the throat - _oh fuck he’s burning, his skin smoking and tightening and it hurts -_ and throws him back into the blaze.

Venom laps over the wound tentatively, a cool relief as he swallows down the ruined skin, and reveals new pink skin behind. “Thanks, love.”

 _Thank you_. Venom whispers back.

They step back. Eddie waits until Riot’s stopped moving, until he’s just a pile of smoldering rubble in the middle of the blaze, and grabs one of the pipes to the sprinkler system and directs a spray of water over the blaze, then grabs a fresh blanket and starts beating out the flames.

The room stinks, of Heat and Alpha and burnt symbiote. The rabbits have huddled in the depth of their burrow and won’t be coming out any time soon. Eddie steps back and looks at the remains, Riot a burn mark on the floor, Drake outside missing his head and upper body down to the hips.

“Okay.” Eddie breathes.

“Yes.” Venom crawls out of his shoulder, looking around wide eyed. “Now what?”

That’s the fucking question, isn’t it? They walk out of the farm that’s been their home for over a week, step over Drake’s remains, through the ruined door, and into the cockpit. It smells almost innocuous now, any scents have been stripped away by the vacuum of space. The spaceship controls look even worse, the drag of space having torn out more loose parts and wires. The seats are bolted down securely though, and Eddie sits down, stares out of the broad window, into the endless _nothing_ in front of them.

“How fast are we even going?” Eddie looks down at the screens, but most of them are broken, the readouts blank. The one still working is just a blank screen, whatever computer running it dead.

“Three point five light years per minute.” Venom looks out at the stars.

Eddie looks at him, “Really?”

“Yes. Not as fast as the comet, but still substantial.”

Substantial. Yeah. “Riot did this?”

“Unless your people know how to achieve light speed, yes.” Venom relaxes against Eddie’s shoulder. “It is not too difficult, if you use the planet’s gravitational field.”

The cockpit’s getting warmer now, the life support systems must still be working. Eddie wonders bleakly how long they’ll keep working for. The spaceship wasn’t mean for such long journeys. At this speed Drake and Riot must have been planning to get to the comet, grab the symbiotes and be back in a few hours. Now...

Now, Eddie and the rocket are further from their planet than anything from Earth has ever been. Venom feels okay, but it’s fine for him, he’s used to it. Eddie stares at the endless, slowly revolving stars, and wants to cry. The crying of a small child; terrified and huddled inside him.

_I want to go home._

“I’m sorry, Eddie.” Venom wraps around him in a hug, and it’s stupid, but he does feel better. “There are more than just symbiotes out here, there are many other races among the stars. We may run into them.”

“Yeah.” That seems a pretty slim hope, one small ship in a literally endless sea of stars. But it’s enough to get him up, checking the other doors. “Let’s see if this tin can actually has a shower.”

It does. It even has a bunkroom, but it still reeks so badly of Drake that Eddie just steals a few of the less tainted pillows and blankets, and pulls them back to the cockpit to nest. They’re clean and warm, and the ready-packed meals offer a stack of quesadillas, ready to bake. Eddie swallows mouthfuls of blissfully hot cheese and meat and bread, barely notices the burn because finally, _food_.

 _Good_. Venom purrs, swallowing down two. _I’ll miss your world’s food, Eddie_.

And that kills his appetite dead. Eddie looks at the stocks, there’s a lot, but once they’re gone, they’re gone, and he and Venom will be back to the farm, to rabbits and carrots. One more tie to his world broken and lost forever.

 _I’m sorry_.

“It’s okay.” Eddie swallows a mouthful that now tastes of ash. He looks out as the stars slowly brush past their ship. “It’s not your fault.”

He lies down in their nest, Venom wrapped around him, he knows he’ll dream of green trees, green-grey seas, and the blue blue _blue_ of the endless sky.

 

* * *

 

 

For a while, that’s all there is. Eddie feels like- a machine, run down and grey all the way through. He gets up and tends the rabbits, watches dully as Venom snaps down a few. He eats a few vegetables with his meals to eke them out. He washes, and sits in the chair to watch the stars.

 _Eddie_ , Venom whispers to him, sometimes, but it’s too much effort to answer. He closes his eyes, rests his head against Venom’s and just tries to- not exist, for a while.

And that goes on until Eddie’s mechanically sorting through the medicine stores. There are a few Heat suppressants, and for a moment Eddie wonders who the Omega was on the crew, or if Drake just put it in to be thorough. Then he finds the little stack of tests, and his mind stalls.

Eddie stares at them, picks up one. _Clearblue_.

“Eddie?” Venom peers over his shoulder, he’s not sure what these are. Eddie doesn’t explain, Venom can look it up in his brain if he’s interested. He walks over to the toilet, opens a pack and pulls one out. One quick pee later and -

_Positive._

Eddie closes his eyes. The fog of the last few days flies away and reality hits like a battleaxe. Pregnant. Holy fuck.

“Eddie?” Venom noses him.

He’s pregnant. In space.

“Eddie. This is good, Eddie.”

He’s going to have a kid alone on a spaceship with only Venom there.

“Eddie, calm down.”

He’s pregnant. He’s going to have a kid. A kid. In space. Has anyone ever _had_ a kid in space?

“Eddie.”

Oh fuck he’s pregnant. Oh fuck the kid. Oh fuck oh fuck _oh fuck_ -

Venom bites him, sharply on his shoulder and Eddie snaps back to himself. “Eddie!” Venom snarls. “Calm down!”

Eddie’s panting as though he’d run a mile, adrenaline burning through him from the panic attack. He takes a step back, and his legs buckle. He falls down hard on his ass.

“We can eat it, Eddie.” Venom nuzzles him. “If you don’t want it. It’s very small.”

He can feel Venom’s reluctance and - yeah, it’s his kid too. And it's not like Eddie is- against this. He _wants_ their baby, but not here, not like this. What can he possibly offer a kid, trapped on a spaceship until the food runs out, or the life support system cuts off?

“We will look after it.” Venom nuzzles him, and presses a kiss to Eddie’s lips. “Us, and the spawn. They will be here soon. They can grow up together.”

And oh fuck that sounds so fucking _wonderful_ \- but wonderful in San Francisco, wonderful _on Earth_. Not here.

“We may still be found.” Venom kisses him again, and Eddie kisses back. He tastes salt, he hadn’t realized he was crying. “We are moving towards Nova space, it may take a few years, and they will certainly notice us.”

Eddie blinks, swallows damply. “Yeah?”

“Yes.” Venom says firmly, “They do not like my people, but if you hide us -"

“Sure,” Eddie manages a smile, strokes Venom’s smooth head. “Do they know humans?”

“I doubt it.” Venom smiles. “But we can manage.”

Eddie draws in a deep, shivering breath. “Okay. I’ll keep the kid. We’ll - make it work. How many years?”

“A little less than two.”

Two years, in a tin can. They’ll have to check their food supplies, and make sure the rabbits don’t get too inbred, but they can do it. They can make it, and maybe when they get to- Nova space, they can find someone who can bring them back to Earth.

He imagines what Annie would say, being gone years and coming back with two kids and a bunch of aliens. “They’re not going to try and take over Earth, right?”

“If they did, they’d have done it already.”

Well, that was just as reassuring as it wasn’t. Eddie walks back to the cockpit and sits down, Venom resting against him, warm and comforting. Eddie traces fingers absently over his stomach. He’s got a kid. That’s going to take some time to get used to.

He glances at Venom. “Where’s your baby?”

Venom slides over, “Here.” Eddie rests his hand on Venom’s body. It might be his imagination, but the skin feels a little warmer there. “It is sleeping.”

Eddie smiles, “Guess we’re going to have to think of baby names, huh?” He rubs the skin gently, it’s harder than usual, his fingers don’t press past the surface. “How long before it’s born?”

“Not sure,” he wriggles around Eddie. “We used your DNA so, it might be a similar incubation time. How long does it take for you?

“Nine months usually.” Eddie runs his fingers over his stomach again. “Give or take. Is birthing difficult for you?”

Venom slips back under his skin. _It can be. Painful, at least. Usually there are Workers to help_.

“Can I help?”

A pause, _Yes. Stay with us for the birth. It will hurt but -_

“Don’t worry.” Eddie hesitates, “You can help me with mine, right?”

 _Of course_.

Well, that’s it then. Eddie gets up to check the rabbits have enough water, and Venom fixes a hole in one of the water pipes. Two years. It echoes through them as they walk back to the cockpit and settle into their nest. Two years. Eddie leans in, and kisses Venom; the press of teeth, the slide of liquid skin is already comfortingly familiar. Venom smiles, and that’s familiar too, lighting a warmth inside Eddie that has nothing to do with the way Venom is slowly sliding over his thighs, his stomach, his cock. He opens his arms and draws Venom in, closing his eyes as they enfold each other, buried in blankets and pillows.

And it’s funny, but those two years, those two strange, frightening years stretching before them into the unknown, far from everything he or anyone else has ever known -

He’s looking forward to them.

 

 


	2. After Credits Scene

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Because I couldn't help it :D

“Eddie!” Venom yelps, pulling out of Eddie’s shoulder so suddenly he almost pulls Eddie off his feet. Eddie braces himself against the wall, one hand on his stomach against the morning sickness. He’s starting to show now, just a little. “Eddie, look!”

Eddie turns and - _oh_.

Outside the window is a spaceship. It’s glossy and brightly coloured, yellow and blue. The broad, back-sweeping wings branching into three engines, glowing faintly to nudge the craft closer to theirs.

“I thought you said it’d take years to get to Nova space!” Eddie yelps, backing up.

The ship turns lazily, sweeping out of sight to pull up beside them. “It does.” Venom sounds shaken. “And that is not a Nova ship. I have never seen a ship like that.”

“Shit.” Eddie backs up against the wall. The airlock window flickers, and darkens as something passes over it. “They’re coming aboard. Are they - pirates or something?”

“Possibly.” Venom wraps around him, swarming over his fingers and lengthening them into claws. “We can fight. Nothing can stand against us.”

“And they’re definitely not symbiotes?” Eddie lifts his hands up, and Venom closes over his head, the world lighting up in the thousand colours of hunger.

“No.” Venom growls from his mouth as the airlock hisses open, and something steps into the ship.

Some _one_.

“What the fuck!” The guy jumps back, lifting a pair of- phasers. They look like fucking phasers. How is this Eddie’s life? “What are you?!”

Venom snarls at the phasers, and starts forwards.

“Whoa, whoa!” Eddie breaks through. “Okay, I’m taking this.” Venom grumbles, but slinks back inside him, waiting just under his skin unless the guy opens fire.

“You’re, holy fuck, you’re _human?”_ The guy’s wearing some kind of helmet, red lenses fixed on Eddie, and a red leather jacket over a grey T-shirt. If this guy’s meant to be an alien, Trek did it better.

“Yeah.” Eddie scowls, crossing his arms. “Who are you?”

The guy presses a button on his helmet and it peels off him. The guy’s totally, 100% human,  with a faint beard and close cut hair. He smells warmly and familiarly of Omega.

“I’m Starlord. And who the hell are you?”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for coming to the latest installment of 'Omegas rock Alphas suck' in which I continue to completely fail at following the standard tropes for these fics. 
> 
> If you liked this take on A/B/O, please look up my Iron Man/Avengers series [Sex, Love and Robotics](https://archiveofourown.org/series/85684), which is where I developed a lot of the ideas in this fic. Do mind the warnings though.


End file.
